Peaches in Vanilla Syrup

Canned Peaches has been on my to-do-list for a long time and last week I finally got the time and the perfect peaches. Have you ever tasted home preserved peaches? If so, you will never purchase any from a store again. Is there really anything so good?!

When I preserve food I never use any additives or chemical preservatives. Therefore it is sometimes vital to use a processing method. This recipe for Peaches in Vanilla Syrup is made with a light syrup. Less sugar gives a more intense peach flavour. But less sugar also means less durability. The best way to process canned fruit (if you don’t own any fancy equipment) is in a waterbath. The processing method I have used for this recipe is perfect for almost all canned fruit and it is also very easy to accomplish.

Peaches in Vanilla Syrup

In a large saucepan you place the sugar, water and seeds from the vanilla pod. Bring to a gentle simmer.

Add the peaches to the syrup and leave them for a minute or two. Move the peaches from the syrup to a container with ice cold water. Remove the skin from the peaches.

Start filling thoroughly cleaned jars with peaches. Pack as many as possible, inside the jars, without damaging the fruit. Fill the jars with syrup leaving an inch at the top. Seal the jars.

Time to process! Place a kitchen towel on the bottom of a very big sauce pan (it has to be big enough to accommodate all the jars completely covered with water). The towel prevents the jars from cracking.

Place all the jars on top of the kitchen towel and fill the saucepan with water. Make sure all the jars are covered with water by an inch or two. Slowly bring the water to boil. Once it is boiling you leave the jars in the waterbath for 20-25 minutes. 20 if using smaller jars and 25 if using bigger ones.

Note: Processing your peaches in a waterbath will both sterilize the jars as well as creating a vacuum which will increase the freshness date by many months. Processed peaches doesn’t need to be stored in a refrigerator.